Is My Child Gifted

Is My Child Gifted?

By Carol Bainbridge, https://www.360docs.net/doc/b64206493.html, Guide

"Is my child gifted?" That is a question many parents ask. Finding the answer is not always easy because gifted children are individuals. They are as different from one another as non-gifted children are from other non-gifted children. However, gifted children have enough in common to make it possible to determine if a child is gifted or not. One just has to consider several different factors.

Traits and Characteristics:

Parents often wonder if their child is gifted when they see evidence of advanced abilities, for example, early reading, excellent memories, or relating well to adults. They can begin to get a sense of their child's giftedness by looking at lists of characteristics. However, it is important to remember that a child does not have to have all of the traits to be gifted.

Signs of Giftedness in Infants

A common misunderstanding about gifted children is that their giftedness does not become apparent until after they start school. Gifted traits, however, can be recognized in toddlers. If you know what to look for you can also recognize gifted characteristics in infants!

Characteristics of Giftedness in Infants Extremely alert -- always looking around Needs less sleep than most other babies Needs almost constant stimulation when awake

May begin to mimic sounds earlier than other babies

Tend to be exceptionally sensitive to sounds, smells, textures, tastes and may cry vigorously in response to unpleasant or stong ones.

A baby does not have to have each of these signs in order to be gifted, but many babies who turn out to be gifted children will usually display more than one.

The most recognized trait is extreme alertness. The hardest trait to recognize is the exceptional sensitivities. When these babies cry as a result of these sensitivities, it may seem as though they are crying for no apparent reason, so parents believe they have a "difficult" baby. Sometimes parents may even believe the baby has colic. The babies, however, could be crying because they don't like the feel of their clothing or of the diaper, or perhaps the smell of dinner is too strong.

Gifted Children and Language Development

One characteristic of gifted children is advanced language ability, which means these children reach developmental milestones relating to language earlier than developmental charts would indicate. This means that gifted children tend to talk earlier, have larger vocabularies, and use longer sentences than non-gifted children.

How can parents tell if their child's language development is advanced? A first step is to look at typical language developmental milestones. A second step is to look at what advanced language development is. Language Developmental Milestones

At three months, a child:

Makes cooing and gurgling sounds

At six months, a child:

Babbles and makes sing-song sounds

At twelve months, a child:

Babbles, but with inflection, which sounds like talking

Says first word

At eighteen months, a child:

Says 8-10 words others can understand

Has vocabulary of about 5 to 40 words, mostly

nouns

Repeats words heard in conversation

Uses “hi,” “bye,” and “please” when reminded At two years, a child:

Has a vocabulary of 150 to 300 words

Uses 2-3 word sentences, usually in noun-verb combinations, such as "Dog bark," but also using inflection with combinations like "More cookie?"

Refers to self by name and uses “me” a nd “mine”

At three years, a child:

Uses 3-5 word sentences

Asks short questions, usually using "what" or "where."

Has a vocabulary of about 900-1000 words

At four years, a child:

Has a vocabulary of about 1,500 to 2,500 words

Uses sentences of 5 or more words

At five years, a child:

Identifies some letters of the alphabet

Uses 6 words in a sentence

Uses “and,” “but,” and “then” to make longer sentence

By age six, a child's language begins to sound like adult speech, including the use of complex sentences, with words like "when," for example. However, children tend not to use sentences

with "although" and "even though" until about age 10.

Advanced Language Development

Early Talking

Gifted children tend to begin talking early. While most children say their first word at around one year of age, gifted children may begin speaking when they are nine months old. Some parents report that their children said their first word even earlier than that, as early as six months of age.

Some parents have even reported that their children tried very hard to form words at three months! However, most babies are simply not physically developed sufficiently to control their mouths, tongue, and lips well enough to make the speech sounds they need. They may purse their lips and nearly turn blue with the effort and then become quite frustrated when they can't make the sounds they want to make. Teaching babies sign language is a good way to help these children express themselves without vocalization.

It's important to note that not all gifted

children speak early. In fact, some gifted children are late talkers, not talking until they are two years old or even older. When they do speak, however, they sometimes skip over the stages of language development and may begin speaking in full sentences. While early talking is a sign of giftedness, not speaking early is not an indication that a child is not gifted.

Advanced Vocabulary

An advanced vocabulary can mean two different things. It can mean the number of words a child uses and it can mean the types of words a child uses.

While a non-gifted child may have a vocabulary of 150-300 words at age two, gifted children may have surpassed the 100 word mark by the time they are eighteen months old. At eighteen months, most children have a vocabulary of from five to twenty words, although some do reach the fifty-word milestone by the time they are two years old. In their second year, most children increase their vocabulary to up to 300 words. Gifted children, however, will have a larger working vocabulary, approaching that of a four year old or even older children.

The other type of advanced vocabulary refers to the types of words a child has in his or her vocabulary. Typically, the first words a child learns will be nouns: mama, daddy, dog, ball, bird, etc. After that, simple verbs are added, for example, want, go, see, give.Gifted children, however, will be adding connecting words, such as and or even because.By age three, gifted children might also have added transitional words, such as however or multisyllabic words like appropriate.

Sentence Structures

A typical two-year old can construct sentences of two or three words, often without a verb. For example, a child might say, "There cat" for "There is a cat." A gifted child, however, will often be able to speak in fuller sentences at age two and by age three, their language may already resemble adult speech. They are able to use time markers, like now, later, first, and then, which, along with their advanced vocabulary and more complete sentences, allow them to carry on full conversations with adults.

Although most gifted children have this kind of advanced language development, its absence does not mean a child is not gifted. The range

of normal language development is also as widely variable in gifted children as it is in the non-gifted population. These descriptions of what might be typical in a gifted child are meant to help parents understand what advanced language ability looks like.